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CRUX Amoris 



A FANTASY 



GEORGE MACDONALD MAJOR 



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BROOKLYN 

Ernest J. Chapman 

MCMIII 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR: 

THE SAMURAI. 
THE SIREN OF THE WOODS. 



Crux Amoris 



A FANTASY 



GEORGE MACDONALD MAJOR 



m 




BROOKLYN 

Ernest J. Chapman 

MCMIII 



T5 ^'^fi 



JUN 17 1903 

ft Cupviignt trvtry | 
6 LASS ^ XXc. No. 
COPY 8. \ 



COPYRIGHT, 1903, 
BY GEORGE MACDONALD MAJOR. 



CRUX AMORIS. 



(Erux amori0» 



I. 

Cold was the Morning and blown to the arms 
of the shore from the Ocean, 
Drearily drifted the sand lately kissed by 
the lips of the Wave, 
There in the gloaming of Dawn as I watched 
the Sea's rhythmical motion, 
Love all disheveled and wan 1 saw building 
a desolate grave. 

II. 
There wheeled the white gull in flight and his 
cousin the grey sweeping by, 
Eyed, all unwinking, observant, the burden 
Love labored to hide ; 
Ne'er though an eagle left eyrie nor swooped 
from the careless blue sky, 
Different the prey which he scented when 
hovering o'er woodland and tide. 

III. 

Never a scene that was lonelier spread to the 
vision of man ! 
Only the voice of the wind and the wash of 
the far rolling seas, 
Cries of the birds in the air and the skirr of 
a rabbit that ran, 
Echoless. back to the woods, and the soft 
soughing sob of the trees. 



CRUX AMORIS. 



lY. 
Weeping, Love finished the task, and I said, 
"In the passing of years, 
Death at the ends of the ways with his robe 
must encompass us all, 
Still cheer the heart! for a light in the darkness 
illumines our tears, 
Hope whispers still 'it is well,' and with 
Faith sees a star o'er the pall." 

V. 
Love, looking up to the sky, where the trail 
of the low-lying cloud. 
Stretched from the East to the West like the 
path of a sorrowful wraith. 
Said, "Oft before have I buried my treasured 
with hope in the shroud, 
This is the end and the saddest, for this is 
the funeral of Faith." 

VI. 
Then was I troubled in mind and my heart for 
a moment stood still. 
What was the worth of the Day that the sun 
now announced in the East ? 
Where was the hope for the World and the 
balm for its sorrow and ill. 
If it was true as I heard that the heart-beats 
of Faith were deceased ? 

VII. 
All the grand actions of men that the Past 
magnifies and uprears. 
Trophies of Ages, embroidered with gold on 
the garments of Time, 
All the great songs of the poets and wisdom 
the harvest of years. 
Beauty the sculptor unveils and the artist 
sees, sketching sublime; 



CRUX AMOR IS. 



VIII. 
What are their value if Faith is discrowned 
and lies dead in the tomb ? 
Faith that sends roots through the Earth 
and that flowers in the Heavens above, 
Faith e'en the touchstone of Honor ? I looked 
through the sea-mist and gloom, 
Saying at last, "P'rhaps I erred in mv 
thought of thee— Say, art thou Love ?'' 

IX. 
" Love ? I was love yesterday, but unlaurelled I 
am but a ghost, 
Man by the body alive but within a dead 
soul that was I, 
' All the world honors, accepts me, my word is 
the Truth,' was my boast. 
One, the sole one whom I loved, spurned my 
truth as a cheat and a lie. 

X. 

" Never a bolt from on high, from the blue 
laughing fields of the sky. 
Crashing through limitless ether, wide-bring- 
ing destruction and death. 
Shot less expected or brought in its lethal 
path sorrow so nigh. 
As did her words of derision, the scoffing and 
hiss of her breath. 

XL 

" Doubtless the cup had been bitter and deeply 
the sabre had cut. 
Had it been any but she, say my brother or 
sister, perchance. 
But for the one whom my Youth, in adoring, 
on pedestal put. 
It was the end of Ambition, the death of the 
days of Romance." 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XII. 
' Nay," I replied "This is madness ; yea, this is 
the answer of Cain, 
God on no back lays a burden too stout for 
the purpose designed, 
Sorrow borne bravely breeds Progress, as 
Losses retrieved turn to Gain, 
So in the fire of its chastisement, every grand 
soul is refined." 

XIII. 
Love as he answered me turned then his lack- 
lustre eyes on my face. 
Where I beheld, as through glass, that the 
spirit within him was dead, 
Just as the rainbow-hued shell might retain 
all its beauty and grace, 
E'en though the tenant that lived in its 
whorl had forevermore fled. 

XIV. 
Mouther of platitudes," thus he addressed me, 
" oh, easy indeed. 
You, with but down on the lip and a young 
life by Sorrow un wrung, 
Culling from gardens of other hands' sowing 
the ripe fruited seed. 
Easy to speak of the laborer's toil with a 
light-hearted tongue ! 

XV. 

Easy to speak of Endurance whose fortitude 
ne'er has been tried ! 
Easy to plan for the victor who ne'er in the 
battle has fought ! 
Go where the shrill screaming bombshells are 
bursting on every side, 
If you have won the ordeal, then, show forth 
the deed for the thought. 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XVI. 
' Youth with its feet on the Earth but its head 
high upborne to the stars, 
Lightly may talk of thefogbanks, and lights 
that mislead and betray, 
Courage is red in its vigor, but Age, that is 
covered with scars, 
Knows, like the veteran, the cost of the 
glory, and shudders to pay. 

XVII. 
Still it is worth all the sorrow, if one at the 
hearth-stone of Home, 
Loved and preferred to all others, still honors 
the victor with Trust, 
But when the Conqueror coming, finds Doubt 
and Disdain in its dome. 
Laurels that princes might envy are sered 
and trailed low in the dust. 

XVIII. 
What, shall I suffer my Truth to be thought 
and disdained as a lie ! 
What, to be named, as without the one trait 
that in man is divine ! 
Slave to a vice that is loathsome, that tum- 
bles the noble and high. 
Lower than even a beast and that classes 
the maa with the swine ! 

XIX. 
Nay, when you crumble the base whereon 
Character must be upbuilt, 
All the fine palace, dismantled, sinks down 
into ruin and dust ; 
Love is a wanton that lingers when charged 
with unmerited guilt. 
Losing its own self-respect by accepting a 
kiss without trust. 



CRVX AMORIS. 



XX, 

" So when the hand I had fondled, that should 
have been raised to defend, 
Struck to the heart of my being, I being free- 
born, not a slave, 
Found, though the wound had healed over, 
that Love evermore was at end. 
Tombing my dead, alas, tombed too, my 
own better self in its grave." 

XXI. 

Then I said, "Soothly I spoke. Is there noth- 
ing but Love in the world ? 
Shame to the spirit so craven, yea, be all 
sufficient alone ! 
Power is the darling of old men, be Love from 
its eminence hurled. 
Riches and Rank have their uses, fight brave- 
ly and make them thine own. 

XXII. 
" Canst thou bind Nature to serve thee by some 
great invention and skill ? 
Pry in her innermost secrets, for knowledge 
unravelled and dim, 
Earth, water, air, seize their treasures and 
force them to bend to thy will. 
Eat at the table of God and in measure be- 
link thee with Him. 

XXIII. 
" Hast thou the spell to sway men and to hook 
the great multitude fast ? 
Be to the rabble a leader who need the strong 
arm for a guide ; 
Climb to the seats of the rulers whose puis- 
sance moulded the Past, 
Shaping the Present to serve thee as yon 
setting moon sways the Tide. 



/ 



10 



CRUX AMOR IS. 



\ 



XXIV. 

Perhaps of a quieter spirit, and far from th 
turbulent mass. 
Cloistered with lovers of Beauty and Har- 
mony thou would'st retire, 
Visions and forms haunt thy soul that enthrili 
with delight as they pass, 
Fix them in colors or fashion in substance 
or string thou the lyre," 

XXV. 

Love answered briefly, " Whatboots it to lead 

forth the many-mouthed herd, 

Crying for gluttonous pleasures or liquor td 

sodden the brain ? 

Who, like the base demagogue, would so ser 

vilely cringe with a word, 

Bribing, cajoHng, brow-beating, the vote o: 

a knave to obtain .'' 

XXVI. 

Wealth, to be wrung from the sweat of th<' 

poor as a Jew sweats his gold, 

Stol'n by the tricks of the Tr^^der far shor ; 

in his measures and weight ! 

Who, with the soul of a man, the stained Cash 

in his coffers would hold ! 

Fleeced by the cunning of lawyers inciting' 

their neighbors to hate ? 

XXVII. 

What is the worth of a beautiful thought ir 

this money-mad age ? 

Even the children are tutored to worshiji 

Success in the schools ! 

Where would the poets find hearers ? or when 

would you settle the sage ? 

Hymning the follies of Fashion to live on tbi 

incense of fools ? 



11 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XXVIII. 
' Yea, e'en the children are tutored to Worship 
Success in the schools. 
What is it History calls Glory and. what 
is the Nation's emprise ? 
Lo ! ' tis the statesman who climbing but 
uses his friends as his tools, 
Marches of millions in armies to crush the 
weak State till it dies. 

XXIX. 

Oh, but the Age has ta'en Folly to wife and 
the world is astray ! 
Keep thy young daughter in innocence lo ! 
she has never a shield, 
Teach thy young son to be loyal, unselfish, — 
thou mak'st him a prey, 
Nay, never trust them to men but more safe 
with the beasts of the field. 

XXX. 

Then, since the blossom of Love has but borne 
me the bitterest fruit, 
Back into Nature for solace, yea back to the 
ground will I hie. 
Hew me a space in the forest and sowing my 
clearing compute, 
Sure of the fealty of Autumn, the largess of 
soil and of sky. 

XXXI. 
There shall I turn the rich loam and shall 
plant me my edible seeds, 
There, seeking beauty, shall sow me the 
tubers of odorous flowers, 
Let me be faithful, no harvest shall bring to 
me venomous weeds. 
What I have sown shall a thousand fold 
come with the fruit-bearing hours. 



12 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XXXII. 
'■* Truly, we all are astray, and have wandered 
afar from the plan, 
Nature, the wisest of mothers, outlined for 
the children of men ; 
Cooped in our overgrown cities where Poverty 
curses the man, 
Poisons the air that he swallows and makes 
of his dwelling, a den. 

XXXIII. 
" There, where they fester in sickness and starve 
in their ultimate needs. 
Men, forced to crime in their hunger, and 
women to shame and disgrace, 
While, in a circle, stretch acres all fallow or 
given to weeds. 
That to the ploughshare of Labor would fill 
all the wants of the race." 

XXXIV. 
Suddenly over the scene shot the rays of the 
sovereign sun. 
Changing the sea into sapphire, the woods 
into emerald green, 
All the dark mists of the Morning were lifted, 
the clouds one by one, 
Melted to saffron and pink or were fused in- 
to amethyst sheen. 

XXXV. 

Save a great cloudbank that rose in the orient 
arches enskied, 
Floating imperial in grandeur athwart the 
warm path of the Day, 
Formed in a white perpendicular with arms 
branching out on each side. 
Haloed with sunshine and casting a shadowy 
cross o'er the way. 



13 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XXXVI. 
Then as I gazed, lo ! methought stood an 
angel apparelled in light, 
Shining with glory all golden and yet most 
benignant of face, 
And when he spoke all his words like the 
strings of a harp in the night, 
Or o'er the waters a lute, most mellifluous, 
swelled full of grace, 

XXXVII. 
" Children of Earth," he began " being Earth- 
born your thoughts are of Earth, 
Whence rises prayer that pollutes the pure 
radiant peace of the sky, 
Self, ever self, in your sorrow, self, ever self, in 
your mirth. 
In all the arcs of Life's circle, still self, ever 
potent and nigh. 

XXXVIII. 
•• Think ye of God when He made man. He made 
them of different clay ? 
Some to make bricks without straw for the 
others' the lords of the world ? 
Think you He hardened the Earth, that the 
human his pride might display ? 
Or was the scroll of His Time to inscribe 
with Man's glory, unfurled ? 

XXXIX. 

" What is the greatness of Man of which you 
would have him so proud ? 
Is it the strength of his body and can he out- 
wrestle the bear ? 
Can he outrun the fleet ostrich, or, with more 
endurance endowed, 
Can he go forth Hke the camel, the drouth of 
the desert to dare ? 



14 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XL. 
•' Place him alone on the Sea when the Typhoon 
is ready to dash, 
Set him alone on the plain when the Cyclone 
resistless goes free, 
When the Volcano's cone vomits and spouts 
forth its lava and ash, 
Is not the shadow the cloud casts in passing 
as mighty as he ? 

XLI. 
" Vaunt you his mind as his glory, well can he 
invent a new tale ? 
Or can he sing a new song with a thought 
never spoken before ? 
This is the Age of Invention, can human deep 
thinking avail, 
Moulding a new tool that Nature had never 
the type in her store ? 

XLII. 
" Come, can he tell what is life and the spark to 
its parent explore ? 
Can he unveil Death's dark curtain and 
there the vague future espy ? 
Can he pierce through the abysses and see 
Space's ultimate shore. 
Marking the trend of the Universe in its vast 
orbit, and why ? 

I XLIII. 

I " Where, when the Earth is all molten, the skies 
shriveled up with the heat, 
All the leashed stars black and rayless re- 
I volving in silence and dead. 

Where, in the clash of the worlds shall a man, 
through his power, place his feet ? 
Where can he hide from the Terror, or where, 
God-forsaken, rest head ? 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XLIY. 
Then shall he learn he is nothing, a shadow* 
an echo, a dream, 
Time, on whose page he would scribble, and 
Space, he would fill with his deeds, | 

These are the visions of Man's limitations, | 
that are not, but seem, f 

God is alone the reality, all else unstable, re- | 
cedes. 

XLV. j 

Turning to Love he continued his teaching, j 

"Oh, Love! is it well, I 

Sore disappointed and stricken, however | 

misjudged and belied. 

Still, thus to shut in thy heart, like an anchor- | 

ite hid in his cell, j 

Fleeing thy duties to others and counselled i 

alone by thy pride ? 

XLVL I 

** See, on the crest of the Sea, is the shape of the I 

Cross of the Christ! | 

Wert thou maligned more ? and dost thou | 

forget the example He gave ? | 

He, the Almighty, Who pleased not Himself | 
but to others unpriced. 
Gave to their needs His abundance, e'en leav- 
ing His heavens to save ? 

XLVn. 
" Go and do likewise, remember, that there is 
the cordial for Grief, 
Found in the sympathy given to others who 
sorrow alone ; 
Ever the scarred hands of Suffering are lifted 
to thee for relief. 
Give them thy comfort and presence, and so 
thoushalt conquer thine own." 



16 



CRUX AMORIS. 



XLVIII. 
Forth as he finished, the sun flashed his full- 
ness of fulgency on 
Sea and the shore, and the clouds were dis- 
solved on the Sky's sapphire slope. 
Turning then Love spake anon, for the angel 
in sunshine had gone, 
Saying"! bury here Hatred: with God is 
my Faith and my Hope." 



17 



Of this poem have been printed 25 
copies on Strathmore Deckle Edge 
Paper ; 6 copies on Japanese Vel- 
lum ; and on large paper, with 
a special title page, borders, and 
tail piece designed by the author, 
and 3 cuts and a bibliography, 
15 copies on VanGelder Handmade 
Paper ; 3 copies on Japanese Vel- 
lum. 



P/?ESS OF 

RICHARD PICKERING, 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



K44 27 M 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



ss H 

III 



